St. Johnsbury Caledonian. [volume] (St. Johnsbury, Vt.) 1867-1919, 1887-07-28
A CoLoRED HERO.
Harner,s WssLy,,

Harper's Weekly
Arthur Robertson, to whose heroic
efforts was due the saving of seven
lives from the drowning mass of hu
manity thrown into Canarsie Bay b,
the capsizing of the sloop Mystery OF
Sunday, the 10th of July, was born il
Quire Creek, Virginia, ran away to sea
and followed the water since he was
about ten years of age. He is a mar
of thirty-five years, looking much
younger, of deeper than mulatto tint
and of the wiry, well-knit texture O.
build and Inconsistencies of attitude
which bespeak the healthy man al
ease in all his movements. Being
asked as test question, in the course
of a long interview, how he felt when
he got "among them" and especially
when the gunwale dipped, under one
clinging persons pressure from with
out, so far that much water was taken
into his boat, and everything was in
jeopardy, he said: "I am one of them
fellers that it takes a heap to make
up my mind, but when l do, mean to
do or die, and never lose my senses
| see my wife at home; / see them
struggling and screaming in the wa
ter | see myself, and knows as all de-
ponds on me, and L put my feet firm
on the keel when | got among 'em,
stopped down summat, reach over the
gunwale careful, and has them in.'
The heavy woman who nearly swamp
ed him and his freight he nevertheless
succeeded in saving, and he AYERS he
had to use more bad language on the
occasion than he ever did in his life
Language as Pm ashamed of ever
SINCE"
Did he like the sea life J.? He had
rather inclined to it before he got mar
ried, but since then the feeling was
very different, and he would have left
the business long ago except for his
devotion to Captain Collins, of the
Reaper, who, with his 1.-THE captain's)
father, had befriended him all his life.
He has been in their service about
seven years, two months of which have
been put in on board the Reaper. The
idea of so much "fuss" being made
about him seems quite ridiculous to
him /; chatting, promises, the wiseacre
predictions of his friends, seem to
slide off him harmlessly. His common
sense and modesty are evidently in
grained.
This man saved seven lives. How
did he do it He had been taking a
nap in the cabin, got up to get fresh
air, met a colOred friend, and entered
into conversation with him on the deck
and around the dock as he lay at Bar
rem Island. Suddenly, while remark
ing to one another that that slOOp
seemed to be carrying too much sail,
he saw her tOpple over. The distance
from him was about fifteen minutes
row. The sea was rolling with white
caps over a swelling tide, and to use
his own words, "I had grabbed my
line when l saw her going, and was
off. There came first little baby !;
then MIR. Sweitzer, who had jumped
and swum from the Christina to save
his wife and child struggling in the
water; he made for them, took them
up in the same iron bound way, nearly
getting his gunwale pulled under, as
before recorded. Then, seeing moth
ing moving that was floating, pulled
off for the Deane, "landed" them, as
he says, and seeing something moving
about sixty feet in the wake of the
Deane, now near the wreck, pulled
furiously for that; and now he puts
his hand to his forehead in the rela-
ton, and asks: "What color of dress
had she on P-was it red or dark red,
John 2" Ozark red, Arthur" said a
witness. 81 got her on-got her on
the Deane"-here the poor fellow actu-
ally broke down-'and then l saw
what broke my heart far more than all
the rest. When the woman had been
put on board she was alive" he groan-
ed "and if doctor had been there he
could have saved her; but there were
no barrels on the poor little willing
tug boat, and she had to be rolled on
the rails, and that killed her."